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The data below is the result of a joint investigation by Mother Jones and Ted Miller, an economist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Based on Miller’s work identifying and quantifying the societal impacts of gun violence, the annual price tag comes to at least $229 billion a year (based on 2012 data). That includes $8.6 billion in direct spending—from emergency care and other medical expenses to court and prison costs—as well as $221 billion in less tangible “indirect” costs, which include impacts on productivity and quality of life for victims and their communities. (See the rest of our special investigation here.)
Sources
Guns kill 33,000…: Centers for Disease Control
Total cost of gun violence: Ted Miller
Gun casualties: Centers for Disease Control
Gun violence costs more than $700 per American…: Ted Miller (per capita and total cost); ForeignAssistance.gov (foreign aid); Forbes (Apple); Office of Management and Budget (Medicaid); Surgeon General (smoking)
How it all adds up: Ted Miller (indirect and direct costs, price of one murder), Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation
Direct costs: Ted Miller
Cost of gun violence per state: Ted Miller
Black/white gun victims: Centers for Disease Control
Guns used in 70% of homicides…: Centers for Disease Control, Harvard School of Public Health (suicide attempts), Ted Miller (total costs)
84% of gun homicide victims…: Centers for Disease Control
Gun deaths and car accidents: Centers for Disease Control
